Chapter Summaries

After Emei’s Han the Divine Lord helped Ink Bamboo Mountain defeat the Demon Race, Jade Toad Granny secretly negotiated a truce with Yao Xuanzhou and escaped with the cat Baiyun. Li Fan remained powerless before the Three Great Sects’ overwhelming influence, then helped settle the South Sea’s affairs as the story left Shi Kai to begin a new life as an Emei Outer Sect candidate.

• Ink Bamboo Mountain cultivators collected and studied Devil Embryo samples while Han Xiangmo observed their methods and Li Fan went below to explore the Demon Race’s warehouses.
• Jade Toad Granny appeared beside Li Fan, recognized him and Baiyun, then offered a truce and gave him a black case to deliver to Yao Xuanzhou.
• Yao Xuanzhou read the case’s contents and accepted Jade Toad Granny’s proposal, ending the pursuit as she vanished with Baiyun.
• Li Fan recognized that the Three Great Sects’ power had forced Ink Bamboo Mountain and Jade Toad Granny to set aside their conflict, and he spent the following days helping Han Xiangmo manage the aftermath.
• Han Xiangmo summoned the South Sea Cultivation Families to the Shi Family’s funeral rites, and Emei accepted Shi Kai as an Outer Sect candidate after Li Fan helped arrange it.

Li Fan returned to Ink Bamboo Mountain after the South Sea expedition, assessed his damaged swords and spoils, and began recovering while taking on study and sect duties. At the Heavenly Clothes shop, Xu Ziqing described the Luo Sect’s Vacuum Home in terms that convinced Li Fan he had truly seen Earth.

• Li Fan learned Heaven-Splitting Ghost-Slayer was beyond repair, while his other swords could be restored, and decided to recuperate and cultivate at Ink Bamboo Mountain.
• Yao Xuanzhou advised Li Fan to study the Ten Theories, Six Classics, and mathematics, then lent him an enchanted collection of arithmetic texts.
• Li Fan’s fleet returned safely to Ink Bamboo Mountain, where he registered Red Sheep, earned sect merit, and arranged to sell demon materials through Xu Ziqing’s network.
• Li Fan questioned Xu Ziqing about the Luo Sect’s goal of returning to the Vacuum Home, and Xu Ziqing described a futuristic paradise he had seen in a dream.
• Li Fan realized Xu Ziqing’s account described Earth, the same world sought by the hidden forces behind the Thousand-Faced Immortal and the Twin Fish system.

Li Fan visited Real Person Liang, equipped Lu Qi and Yuan Xuanbao for their coming war in Border Prefecture, and learned how to form a Gui Xu Nascent Soul. At Liuyun Pavilion, he recognized the disguised Madam Yan and ended the gathering by asking her to sing “Laughing at the Red Dust.”

• Li Fan watched Lu Qi and Yuan Xuanbao train and learned they planned to fight the Divine Sect in Border Prefecture.
• Li Fan gave Lu Qi and Yuan Xuanbao armor, weapons, and pills, then asked Real Person Liang for advice on forging a Gui Xu Nascent Soul.
• Li Fan joined Lu Qi, Yuan Xuanbao, and Asha at Liuyun Pavilion, where he recognized Madam Yan by her zither despite her disguise.
• Madam Yan served Flowing Cloud Tofu and explained that its name came from a song she often sang.
• Li Fan gave Madam Yan the lyrics to “Laughing at the Red Dust,” and she learned and performed the song.

After leaving seclusion, Li Fan drew a Bagua Mirror and went to Qingting Peak to practice thunder arts. His lightning practice exposed an ancient cave, where he found a dead cultivator and another Sword Pill.

• Li Fan left seclusion, drew a Bagua Mirror that revealed turbulence, and found his injuries mostly healed and his mood nearly full.
• Li Fan flew to Qingting Peak using the Azure City Windcloud Dragon-Leaping Technique and practiced Kui Water Yin Thunder in the lightning clouds.
• Li Fan trained his palm thunder against the peak for most of the day until a lightning strike cracked open an iron door.
• Li Fan entered the abandoned cave and found a skeleton with a dagger lodged between its ribs, suggesting its owner had been ambushed.
• Li Fan gathered the remains and discovered a stone box hidden in the cushion, containing another Sword Pill.

Li Fan cultivated in the Tai Su Realm, where he advanced his East Mountain Mountain God Dao Body by eating moonflowers and discovered that the realm’s Meis increased his mood limit. Back in the Taiji Realm, he found his muddy flying sword had awakened, but it still rejected him as its master because it required perseverance.

• Li Fan found another inactive sword pill in a stone case, then traveled to the Tai Su Realm to cultivate Moon Worship.
• Li Fan explored a moonflower plain, killed a Mei that attacked him, and discovered the creature’s death increased his mood limit.
• Li Fan ate moonflowers as a Si Niu and advanced his East Mountain Mountain God Dao Body to the Golden Core realm.
• Li Fan returned to the Taiji Realm with moonflowers and planted them near the shrine, then heard the sword pill knocking inside its case.
• Li Fan opened the case and watched the barely awakened sword pill circle him before the system revealed that it rejected him for lacking the required steadfast perseverance.

Li Fan traveled toward Lou Guan Tower, met a messenger from Baiyue Mountain accompanied by powerful corpse protectors, and buried a Daoist whose remains he had found at Qingting Peak. He left with a task to identify the dead cultivator and noticed that refugees and signs of famine were spreading around Lou Guan Tower as war approached.

• Li Fan found Asha practicing swordsmanship and discovered she was not ready to accept the sword pill he had brought for her.
• Li Fan flew toward Lou Guan Tower and met Baileng, a Baiyue Mountain cultivator carrying a letter for Ink Bamboo Mountain’s mountain master and escorted by four talisman-bound Flying Immortals.
• Li Fan directed Baileng to Lou Guan Tower because the mountain master was in seclusion, and warned Baileng to clothe the corpse protectors.
• Li Fan visited Real Person Liang at the cemetery, where young people were preparing for Ink Bamboo Mountain’s annual disciple selection, and handed over the remains he had found at Qingting Peak.
• Real Person Liang arranged a burial and gave Li Fan a bone wrapped in talisman paper to take to the soul-lamp room to identify the deceased.
• Li Fan noticed increasing numbers of refugees and beggars around Lou Guan Tower, along with signs of famine as fighting threatened Li Country.

Li Fan learned that counterfeit Divine Astral Coins and Blood Coins were reshaping trade, then traced remains to Zhao Jingtai, the last master of the Qingting Sect. At Lou Guan Tower, a skin creature called Qingyue tried to seize Li Fan’s stone box, but Li Fan destroyed it and was left bleeding from his face.

• Li Fan sold goods through Jiang Jian at Jiang's Firm and learned that the Three Courts and Nangong Family were minting coins while Blood Coins spread through trade.
• Li Fan visited Lou Guan Tower and discovered that the remains belonged to Zhao Jingtai, the last sect master of the Qingting Sect, whose soul lamp had gone out over two hundred years earlier.
• A smiling skin creature approached Li Fan at Lou Guan Tower, repeatedly calling him Qingyue and reaching for his chest.
• Real Person Liang caught the creature’s hand, but Li Fan’s hands moved toward his stone box as if compelled to give it away.
• Li Fan resisted, cut the skin creature in half with a beam of red light, and found himself bleeding from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
• Real Person Liang asked what the stone box contained, and Li Fan called it junk he had picked up in the mountains.

Li Fan refused compensation for the attack by a Divine Lord and went to the Scripture Pavilion, where a sealed illusion technique called to him. After testing it on Thunder Monkeys and experiencing its dangerous effects firsthand, he decided to stop chasing strange opportunities and return to cultivation.

• Li Fan rejected the Discipline Institute's compensation for Pu Shan's death, while Real Person Liang warned him that the attacker might strike again and told him not to answer if he heard his name called.
• Li Fan reasoned that the sword pill might have drawn the Divine Lord's attention, then went to the Scripture Pavilion to study while the Profound Heaven Sword Intent was away.
• Li Fan followed a beckoning hand and found a sealed bamboo slip containing a Six Ren illusion technique, which he recognized from his recent arithmetic and divination studies.
• Li Fan tested the technique on Thunder Monkeys and discovered that it transformed them into beautiful women in the eyes of anyone inside its formation, while even distorting the user's sense of time.
• Li Fan escaped the illusion after realizing he had spent the evening inside it and resolved to stop pursuing distracting opportunities and focus on proper cultivation.

Li Fan cultivated all five Mountain God Dao Bodies to the Golden Core Realm, then unexpectedly formed a Return to Fate Gui Xu Nascent Soul during a lightning tribulation. He planned to stabilize his new realm by using Moon Worship to absorb Tai Su fiendish qi, and began testing his increased strength.

• Li Fan sent Asha instructions before entering seclusion, then cultivated until all five Mountain God Dao Bodies reached the Golden Core Realm and his mood limit rose to 3,350.
• Li Fan learned from Ink Bamboo Mountain’s inheritance notes that cultivators normally specialized in the Mountain God Dao Body matching their Dao qi, but he decided his five bodies gave him a stronger foundation.
• Li Fan began shaping a Revered Heavenly Demon as a reference for his Nascent Soul, and nine bolts of heavenly thunder struck him and destroyed his courtyard.
• Li Fan checked the system and learned he had passed the tribulation, formed a Return to Fate Gui Xu Nascent Soul, and broken through to the Nascent Soul Realm.
• Li Fan realized Moon Worship could help him absorb Tai Su fiendish qi and stabilize his new realm, then asked Asha whether anyone had visited and went to test his strength.

Li Fan reached the Nascent Soul Realm, then discovered that a trance in his Inner Landscape had lasted three years and left him behind on major events. He went to join the Ink Mountain lineage and learned the Sect Master was away in seclusion, while the three maidservants had waited for him for three years.

• Li Fan tested his new Nascent Soul abilities, mastered the strength of his Dao Bodies, and examined the strange contents of his divine chamber.
• Li Fan rested in his Inner Landscape and woke buried in snow, realizing that years had passed.
• Li Fan read Asha’s letter and learned that she had gone to the northern Border Prefecture for her killing tribulation, while Yao Xuanzhou and other Real Persons had left for Emei’s Peach Banquet and the Three Enclosures Alliance.
• Li Fan inspected his returned swords, learned the Feihong Sword Pill could not be controlled with his Beichen sword arts, and set out to seek the Sect Master.
• Li Fan arrived at the Sect Master’s courtyard, accepted the Ink Mountain robe and Black Sword, and learned from the maidservants that they had waited three years for him.

After waking from three years of meditation, Li Fan learned that the Three Great Sects had launched a war against the Divine Cult and that the Central Plains faced growing hardship. He began seeking the Ink Mountain lineage’s cultivation method, but the moon-worship ritual revealed a terrifying sight: the mountain master’s world appeared to contain Earth beneath a gigantic blue moon.

• Li Fan discovered that he had reached the Nascent Soul Realm and learned that the Three Great Sects had sent seven armies into Kun Country to fight the Divine Cult.
• Xu Ziqing told Li Fan that she had converted their business’s money into grain and described efforts to shelter refugees at Ink Bamboo Mountain.
• Li Fan mistook Madam Yan’s three fox cubs for a demonic threat, then learned that Yan Xingyun had revised a cultivation manual to purify demonic aura into Dao Breath.
• Li Fan traveled to Bamboo Mountain to worship the moon and begin studying the Ink Mountain lineage’s cultivation method.
• The mountain master welcomed Li Fan into a blood-pool pavilion and told him to study the inheritance written outside.
• Li Fan saw an enormous scripture-covered centipede encircling a mountain and recognized that the dark sky and blue moon above him resembled Earth.

Li Fan learned Ink Mountain’s Primordial Spirit Method, Blind Sight, on the moon and received the mountain master’s order to restore four concubines’ souls and return them to Luo Feng Cave Heaven. After restoring their souls, he learned he would need to care for their bodies before they could travel, and the flower spirits offered him a suggestive way to help them recover faster.

• Li Fan memorized the Blind Sight method from the centipede’s back, mastered it, and used its expanded Divine Sense to discover that the pavilion on the moon was an illusion surrounding a real blood pool.
• The mountain master gave Li Fan the four heads of Luo Feng Old Lord’s concubines and ordered him to restore their souls in Flying Immortal Corpse Fetuses before returning them to Luo Feng Cave Heaven.
• The mountain master told Li Fan to act without fear and uphold his own Dao, then sent him back to the bamboo grove with the four concubines’ remaining souls.
• Li Fan drew a couch from the system and flew to the mountain master’s residence, where the flower-spirit maids helped him restore the four souls to their immortal corpses.
• The flower spirits told Li Fan that the concubines needed seven days of care before they could walk and suggested dual cultivation to speed their recovery.

Li Fan chose Xiang Xiaoyu and Nie Feilian as attendants, guided them into cultivation, and learned about Mountain Lord Mo’s rise from a nameless dog butcher to the head of the Ink Mountain lineage. He borrowed a thunder seal and selected an old wine gourd from the Mountain Lord’s collection before leaving the story poised to discover what the gourd contained.

• Li Fan recruited Xiang Xiaoyu and Nie Feilian from the applicants at Lou Guan Tower, taking silk from his Storage Jade to secure Nie Feilian’s release from her opera troupe.
• Li Fan brought the girls to the Scripture Pavilion, where Nie Feilian obtained four cultivation scrolls and Xiang Xiaoyu obtained a Purple Radiance Divine Core method.
• Li Fan used the four flying immortals as models while teaching the girls about meridians and qi circulation, then left them to learn massage from the flower attendants.
• A flower attendant told Li Fan that Mountain Lord Mo had been a nameless dog butcher and bandit called the Barefoot Thief before the seventh-generation Juzi accepted him into the Ink Mountain lineage and he became its Juzi.
• Li Fan borrowed the Bing Fire Yang Extreme Thunder God Seal and, following Si Nan’s clear direction, chose an old wine gourd that had belonged to an Ink Bamboo Mountain elder.

After breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm, Li Fan received the Ghost Bone Hand technique and cultivated it during Moon Worship in a flooded Tai Su Realm, where he disturbed the ghosts of a vanished race and acquired a karma-bearing spike. He returned to Ink Bamboo Mountain, planned his next stages of cultivation, and set out with four flying immortals and two children for Baiyue Mountain, while worrying about the outcome of the Three Great Sects' battle in Kun Country.

• Hua Nu gave Li Fan a gourd filled with Immortal Spirit Jade Marrow and the mountain master's Ghost Bone Hand technique, and Li Fan left to prepare for Moon Worship.
• Li Fan fashioned a Revered Heavenly Demon statue as an anchor, entered a flooded Tai Su Realm, and practiced cultivation and Ghost Bone Hand on a submerged mountain.
• Li Fan found a dark red spike in the ruins and seized its karma, awakening invisible ghosts that collapsed the mountain and pursued him.
• Li Fan returned to the Taiji Realm with a replica of the spike, assessed his Nascent Soul cultivation, and planned to advance toward Divine Transformation.
• Li Fan loaded four flying immortals and two children onto a flying boat and departed for Baiyue Mountain to return them to Luo Feng Cave Heaven.
• Li Fan planned to advance the Ink Mountain mission and worried that the Three Great Sects' battle in Kun Country might require him to intervene.

Li Fan returned from worshipping the moon in a pestilent Tai Su world to find soldiers surrounding his boat and accusing Ink Bamboo Mountain of hiding a wanted criminal. He rescued the fugitive Yang Si'an, killed soldiers who insulted his sect, and learned that Yang had been persecuted for criticizing the Censorate and violating the new ruler’s name taboo.

• Li Fan visited a Tai Su world where parasites had consumed the local civilization, claimed a fragment of its karma, cultivated, and returned to the Taiji Realm.
• Li Fan found East River Prefecture soldiers demanding to search his boat while Nie Feilian and Xiang Xiaoyu defended it and traded insults with their commander.
• Li Fan discovered Yang Si'an hiding beneath the boat, secretly rescued him, then killed the commander and several soldiers after they insulted Ink Bamboo Mountain.
• Xiang Xiaoyu explained that corrupt officials had helped seize her family’s land, and Li Fan promised to teach Nie Feilian basic sword qi after she memorized the meridian diagrams.
• Yang Si'an told Li Fan that he had been punished for criticizing Censorate head Li Hongxian and was now accused of violating the new ruler’s name taboo after the ruler changed his name to Heng.

Li Fan took Yang Si'an toward Xun Country and learned about its succession crisis and the war in Kun Country while his attendants studied under the scholar. During Moon Worship, Li Fan slaughtered wild boars in the Tai Su Realm and drew a new piece of equipment, a fan powered by the creatures he ate.

• Li Fan invited Yang Si'an to travel with him to Xun Country and asked him to teach Nie Feilian and the other attendant to read using Ten Theories.
• Yang Si'an explained Xun Country's power struggle and reported that the Immortal Palace's forces were advancing against the Divine Religion in Kun Country.
• Li Fan and his companions continued toward Xun Country, and Li Fan went alone to practice Moon Worship that night.
• In the Tai Su Realm, Li Fan transformed into Qiongqi and ate about a hundred wild boars, but his Dao Body did not advance.
• Li Fan resumed cultivating his Gui Xu Nascent Soul, restored his charge, and drew the Qiongqi Hundred Bone Fan, which gained ribs from those he ate and could unleash attacks or block curses, plagues, poisons, and hexes.

Li Fan caught the four flying immortals after they stole the ship and drained Yang Sheng, then subdued them and saved the scholar. As the ship continued toward Xun Country, Yang Sheng recounted his strange childhood encounter with a Daoist from Yuntai Peak, revealing his past connection to cultivation.

• Li Fan realized the flying ship was missing, tracked it north, and found the flying immortals draining Yang Sheng while Xiang Xiaoyu and Nie Feilian lay unconscious.
• Li Fan defeated the four flying immortals, forced them to return Yang Sheng’s stolen vital essence, sealed them in a coffin, and treated Yang Sheng and the two girls.
• After waking, Yang Sheng discussed Li Country’s political and economic problems with Li Fan and declined his offer to cultivate.
• Yang Sheng told Li Fan that he had once spent three years studying cultivation on Yuntai Peak after exposing four transforming objects, but had returned to mortal life with a protective jade pendant.
• Li Fan concluded that Yang Sheng had received remarkable cultivation guidance and protection, and planned to heal him and take him safely to Xun Country.

Li Fan investigated the system items on his boat, then fought off a swarm of human-headed moth demons and confronted their gray-haired Nascent Soul master. Their exchange was interrupted when three Nascent Soul Generals accused the man of slaughtering their family.

• Li Fan used the lantern to reveal a subspace ghost, then tested his items and discovered that Mount Tai ink could copy his Dao Bodies’ abilities onto talismans, the Bagua Mirror could show flows of qi, and the jade ring could filter them.
• Li Fan killed a moth demon wearing a corpse, then fought off a swarm drawn by the bone fan’s scent and realized the moths were being summoned by someone.
• Li Fan flew to the summoning light and found a gray-haired Nascent Soul cultivator using a jewel to call the moths back.
• The gray-haired man attacked Li Fan with a ghost-faced saber, and Li Fan countered with the Golden Dragon White Star before they exchanged ten hand-to-hand moves.
• Li Fan identified the gray-haired man as belonging to Luo Feng Wu Cheng Palace and introduced himself as Li Qingyue of Ink Bamboo Mountain.
• Three Nascent Soul Generals and their Golden Core soldiers arrived, accused the gray-haired man of slaughtering their family, and surrounded him and Li Fan.

Li Fan watched Xie Mingchen take revenge on Gu Mo and the Gu Family forces after learning how the Gu Family had destroyed Xie Mingchen’s surviving family. The chapter left Xie Mingchen poised to kill Gu Mo while Li Fan stood by.

• Xie Mingchen showed Li Fan the blood wine’s visions, revealing how the Gu Family had abused and killed his daughter and grandchildren.
• Li Fan accepted that Xie Mingchen’s revenge was justified and left the two sides to fight, but Gu Mo’s soldiers drew him into their formation.
• Xie Mingchen battled the Gu Family’s forces, killing two Nascent Soul Generals with his self-created Grievance Style and Burial of Pine Waves.
• Li Fan fought off the soldiers attacking him with his jade flute and demonstrated his Lightning Style to Xie Mingchen.
• Xie Mingchen explained how grief and hardship had inspired his saber techniques, and Li Fan gave him clean wine to offer his family.
• Xie Mingchen washed Wu Hook with the wine and charged at Gu Mo, shouting that he would die.

Xie Mingchen avenged his family by slaughtering Gu Mo and the Gu Family’s main branch, while Li Fan learned how Xun Country’s succession struggle had led to the massacre. After discussing the Twelve Countries’ rulers with Yang Sheng, Li Fan crossed into Xun Country and found its soldiers fighting among themselves.

• Xie Mingchen killed Gu Mo and the Gu Family’s main branch, then explained that Gu Mo had been exiled after becoming entangled in Xun Country’s succession struggle.
• Xie Mingchen revealed that he had given Gu Mo’s children to the Mountain Ghosts and admitted that the Prince of Lu’s faction had used him to eliminate a rival.
• Xie Mingchen gave Li Fan a token and directed him to Jueyin Heavenly Palace to deliver the celestial maidens, then departed east with his adopted sons.
• Li Fan asked Yang Sheng about Xun Country, and Yang Sheng identified Gu Mo as a celebrated official and warned that the succession struggle threatened the country’s stability.
• Yang Sheng assessed the rulers of Xun, Zhen, and Li Countries, arguing that Li Country had the strongest foundations for unifying the realm.
• Li Fan entered Xun Country and discovered two armies wearing identical equipment fighting one another, confirming that the succession conflict had spiraled out of control.